March 2000

AT YOUR SERVICE:

FYI on Conversion with Adobe PDF

By Julie Gable

Would you bake your own wedding cake? It's a complex project that demands perfection in a tight time frame, so you'd likely hire a professional. The same is true for making high-value, compound documents accessible.

Acrobat and Acrobat Capture software from Adobe Systems (www.adobe.com) simplify Web publishing. PDF (portable document format) retains a document's look and feel regardless of application or platform. It also offers hyper-linking capabilities, compresses images smaller than G4 TIFF, supports full-text searches and is a standard for regulators like the FDA, the SEC and others. Adobe has added capabilities that take PDF beyond the realm of mere file format with functionality for forms, markup and collaboration. A free viewer for anyone who wants it guarantees easy access to content.

PDF conversion choices include Adobe Acrobat (for electronic files) at $295 and Acrobat Capture 3.0, the just-released (and long awaited) upgrade of Adobe's paper and edoc capture product. The personal edition of 3.0 is priced at $699, while a new Enterprise offering starts at $7,000. The latter supports multi-threading of conversion workstations to handle high-volume jobs, and there are no longer separate click charges for each page you convert.

Adobe Acrobat Capture is also licensed or integrated by other capture vendors, including Cardiff, Captiva, Kofax and Input Software, so there is no shortage of options for in-house conversion. So, why would you use an outside service for creating PDF files? Answer: Quality, complexity and volume.

If you're dealing with materials with "corporate identity" issues, you may want to turn to a service bureau with PDF expertise. Though Word-to-PDF is easy enough with PDF Writer, and Distiller handles simple graphics, documents for which visual integrity is critical may require more fuss than you are able or willing to go through.

Conversion services add value to electronic source files by determining how documents should be related, adding indexing and navigational links to other files. Ed Enquist, Vice President of Technology for Document Automation Development (www.docs2cd.com), creates electronic brochures for his customers by digitizing audio and video clips then linking them to PDF files viewable via web.

Legacy paper documents with illustrations, photos, grayscale and color require high-resolution imaging and multi-step processing using several graphics-type scanners. "This is not work for 80-page-per-minute production scanners," cautions Andy Young at Ikon Business Imaging Portable Document Services (www.ikon.com/services), which was formed last year through acquisition of PDF specialists Emerge and WestCo. "The process involves separating out document components and may involve scanning some pages two to three times."

Another value add is the quality review process. Large-volume jobs require dedicated PCs and people to examine each page. In converting for Web delivery, Semiconductor Research Corporation's office scanners wouldn't handle the low contrast of photos on buff-colored paper, and the organization wanted knowledgeable assistance with quality assurance.

Webmaster Juanita Couch hired what was then Emerge for PDF conversion and quality assurance. Total cost for about 1,000 pages was less than $1,200.

Most conversion services quote specific prices on a project basis, based on volume, complexity and turnaround. Hourly rates apply for PDF work with electronic source files. PDF conversion from paper docs costs 15% to 20% more than TIFF conversion, largely due to additional steps in the workflow. Converting PDF to text-searchable files using Adobe Capture can add 30 cents to 50 cents per page to the cost, according to Bob Schug at Lorien Technologies (www.lorienti.com).

PDF image files require manually inserted bookmarks, a time-consuming process that increases outside service fees. One large electronics firm used a service to convert 84,000 pages of technical manuals, then took delivery of the PDF image files and did their own linking and bookmarking.

Some projects are trickier than others. The NCAA's 60,000 pages of back-issue newsletters have research value for sports writers, broadcasters and others, making them ideal Web fodder. The newsletters are 40-page tabloids, where page one prints opposite page 40, page two opposite page 39, and so on.

Marcia Stubbeman, Assistant Editor, turned to Document Automation Development for assistance. Using expertise gained on work for The National Geographic's CD-ROM project, the company captured the material without cutting the pages apart, using software to splice, then assemble pages in order. The newsletters are full-text searchable, easing NCAA staff time in answering queries.

Beyond publishing, watch for PDF to make in-roads with transaction documents used in electronic commerce and customer relationship management applications. Imtran (www.imtran.com) uses Cardiff's Teleform to capture 15,000 customer applications, correspondence, change forms and other ancillary documents per week for a life insurer.

Teleform recognizes indexing from cover sheets, converts TIFF to PDF, then routes PDF images to file folders where customers can access any document in their file via Acrobat Reader. The insurer reaps the savings associated with document imaging, provides instant delivery of information and better customer support.

Captiva (www.captivacorp.com) and Input Software (www.inputsw.com) have licensed Adobe PDF technology, and Adobe's latest version of Acrobat Capture will help these vendors increase PDF conversion speeds and throughput.

Julie Gable, CDIA, LIT is an independent consultant specializing in document-based information management. Reach her at juliegable@aol.com.